No one is a holy cow, neither Gandhiji nor Nehruji. Their detractors have been criticizing them for many many years now and social media today is full of  questions like:

(1) Why did Gandhi support Khilafat?

(2) Why should we be calling him Father of the Nation, he was biased and characterless?

(3) Did we really get Azaadi because of him; he was a British stooge?

However, if a leader is to be criticized for the role he played and decisions he made, one needs to study and examine the set of conditions under which they operated and took decisions. History can not be studied in isolation, piece by piece but has to be read in its entirety. Otherwise these criticisms amount to only mudslinging. Mr Modi had once expressed the same sentiments to Rajdeep Sardesai during his Sadbhawna campaign in Gujarat.

In view of the above, criticism of the yesteryear leaders, who were involved in the freedom movement must be done from an academic point of view by researchers rather than by those who indulge in politics. Politicians and their supporters have a tendency to look at things through the prism of their political ideology and hence indulge in character vilification.

Consequently, one finds today our National Heroes particularly Gandhiji and Nehruji are increasingly being targeted and there is an attempt to denigrate their characters.

This criticism is cyclical in nature as many who have barely done any worthwhile research start casting aspersions in order to please their bosses or their party leaders. When politics gets involved, as Mr Modi had said, it’s more mudslinging. And so we see Netaji Subash Chandra Bose getting propped up in order to malign Gandhiji and Sardar Patel propped up to bring down Nehruji and so on.

If the current dispensation is allowing this kind of unauthentic criticism, and rather vilification, purely from the point of electoral politics then the role of all leaders must be examined and should be open to criticism.

If Nehru and Gandhi are not Holy cows then no other should be.

Firstly, what I found was that Subash Chandra Bose’s role in the Freedom movement has never been critically examined because perhaps the yesteryear leaders never thought of stooping down to this level of character vilification as we have now stooped down to. The old leaders held him in great esteem or perhaps when India moved into this phase of dirty electoral politics Netaji was long gone and was largely inconsequential.

Subash Chandra Bose was amongst the youngest Congress leaders. He was born in a rich and affluent family, which could send him to study in English medium schools and to England for higher education. He was barely 25 years old when he joined the Congress, reportedly inspired by Nehruji’s statement on Indian Civil Services which Nehruji called to be neither Indian nor Civil.

Reportedly, when Netaji and Gandhiji met for the first time, they differed on the question of ends- Bose was attracted to totalitarian models of governance, which was an anathema to Gandhiji. For Gandhiji means were as important as the end.

Netaji Bose would really loathe the people who are using him to malign or undermine Gandhiji, whom he addressed as Father of The Nation.

Therefore, it is agonizing and painfull to critically examine Netaji Bose, for that matter any leader who had made our Freedom possible, However, if dirty politics has become the mainstay of society, then so be it.

Young Leader Barely had an Idea of Indian Masses and Its Temperament

In a party dominated by elderly leaders who had already crossed 50 or nearing 50, young Netaji Bose got overwhelming support from the youth particularly Bengalis and hence, he had a meteoric rise in Congress. Unlike Gandhiji and Sardar Patel, both of whom had toiled hard, widely travelled in India and understood the grain of the country, it is very natural that Bose, coming from an affluent family must have had very little understanding of the Indian masses that too at a young age of 25.

Fascination for Military Uniforms.

Netaji Bose’s fascination with military came to the fore in 1928 when he organized the Annual Meeting of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta and turned up in a GOC’s (General Officer Commanding), a Major General’s, uniform of a Congress Volunteer Corps, who were also donning military uniform. Its officers were even provided with steel-cut epaulettes and his uniform was made by a firm of British tailors in Calcutta – Harman’s.

Not only Mahatma Gandhi, but many other Congress leaders did not like the strutting, clicking of boots, and saluting, as those days the military was seen as oppressive particularly so after the Jallianwala Bagh incident. Reportedly, Gandhiji afterward described the Calcutta session of the Congress as Betram Mills Circus.

Netaji Bose Stood for Totalitarianism like Kemal Attaturk .

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, propped up by current Govt to undermine Nehruji, had opposed Gandhiji’s decision to propose Netaji Bose’s name for the presidency of the Congress. Gandhi overruled his objection and Bose became president in 1938. In 1939, when Bose sought a second term, Patel opposed him again. In a public statement, he warned Bose that even if he were elected, his policies would be vetted and if required vetoed by the working committee. Rajmohan Gandhi wrote in his biography of Sardar Patel that Sardar held a poor opinion of Subhas’s efficiency and that “his disagreements with Subhas were profound”.

Read more ...

.

                                                                                          Famous Physicist and Astronomer Kaku

Why should we be so keenly discussing the difference between Hinduism, Hindutva and Hinduwaadi, that too in 21^st century , when the world is focusing on Artificial Intelligence, 3D Multi-Sensor Transmitters, Robotics, IoT, 5G and edge computing, At-Home Digital Diagnostics ?

While the western countries realizing the damage the church was causing sidelined it almost a century ago and is now taking a lead in developing these cutting edge technologies, it is intriguing that many of us here in India are becoming religious zealots and spending our energies discussing Tulsi Vivah, going gaga over Kashivishwnath corridor and restoration of temples at the cost of tax payer’s money and whether Rahul Gandhi a Brahmin or not. 

Are we living in 21st century or in medievel world ?

The recent incidents in Pakistan and in India therefore need to be understood and analysed because these incidents may appear to be trivial, but they have long term implications.

Over Dose of Religion: Pakistan shows the road ahead

The first incident occurred in Sialkot, Pakistan, where a Sri Lankan manager was tortured and then lynched to death by the workers of his company because they felt he desecrated the holy Quran. This incident shows what religion can turn us into and the path that the society can take if it is consistently nurtured on such over doses of religion. Pakistan took this path 73 years ago.

Famous Astromers and Scientists ; Galileo and Giordano Bruno were punished by the church for having taken a contrary view. But the West realized the follies and corrected itself whereas Pakistan has not.

The second incident took place in India where Waseem Rizvi, the former head of the Shia Waqf board, denounced Islam and changed his religion to Sanatan Dharam. For this, he received several fatwas that ordered his death and astonishingly the State remained a bystander, as if maintaining law and order is individual’s responsibility. Previously, Pehlu Khan and few others were lynched to death in India by their own countrymen on suspicion of consuming beef and the state palmed off its responsibility. Astonishingly, no one has been convicted for lynching of innocents and if any one has been convicted , i will gladly accept that. The third incident occurred in Amritsar where a young man was lynched to death in a Gurudwara for an alleged sacrilege. The political parties blamed the individual for this ‘heinous crime’ but could not muster courage to condemn the cruel killers. The fourth once again happened in Punjab where a few raised a demand for a seperate homeland and a prominent Sikh Leader claimed that if Hindus can demand for Hindu Rashtra whcy cann't some Sikhs demand Khalistan. Lastly, the recent rioting and arson that took place on the occasion of Ram Navmi in many states. 

All these incidents call for the answers to the following questions :

1. Why has the state remained a mute onlooker?

Answering this question should not be difficult as we have the shining example of Pakistan to analyze.

India unlike Pakistan started with an aim to burry its past and keeping religion away from Politics but in 73 years, its politics is now fully in grip of religion. The founding fathers of Pakistan had asked for a separate Nation based on Religion, So it was natural that gradually its society and its politics would revolve around religion. So, Madrasas mushroomed, the Maulanas started playing an important role in country’s politics and there grew a clamor for Shariat law.

The dip in holy Ganges by the PM with sandal wood paste all over his forehead is now widely celebrated in India, and the Kashiwishvnath Mandir corridor that he got it built through tax payers’ money is hailed by all. Gradually there is a growing demand for restoring other temples destroyed by Muslim rulers. As the clamor for temples rise, we should not get surprised when the likes of State Governments of Punjab, Kerala and Nagaland may start allocating funds for renovation of Gurudwaras and Churches. In this one-upmanship of Religion based Politics; no one is complaining from which fund Mr. Modi has paid compensation worth almost crores to numerous owners of houses and shops that were shifted for the construction of the corridor and stupid, incompetent and mentally bankrupt Netas are demanding for changing the names of the cities and towns, as if they have nothing better to do .

2. Where will all this take us to?

India is now treading the same path that Pakistan opted for 73 years back and West left a century ago.

In such a scenario where Politics and Religion are intertwined it is natural that every incident will be viewed through the prism of religion and state can never be seen as fair, non partisan and so it remains an ONLOOKER.

And the elections will be fought as if the various communities are at war with each other and hooligans will be on streets baying for eachothers blood on silly pretexts claiming their Religious sentiments are hurt.

3. Are we becoming Religious zealots ?

Aren’t these incidents of lynching similar to what happened in Sialkot, Pakistan? Yes, they are. So are we Indians also becoming Religious fundamentalists as Pakistan society is ? Surely, Yes and for those who think otherwise , there is a definition for them ;

Religious fundamentalism refers to a belief that emphasizes traditional religious texts and rituals and generally opposes anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. As a result, they are often aggressive towards anyone, even towards their own co-religionists who do not share their beliefs and views as they feel such people are threat to their entire worldview.

Thus one often hears the Islamic or Hindu fundamentalists accusing their own co religionists who do not agree with them as anti-Islamic or anti-Hindu and so on. Yes, Hindu fundamentalists may not issue Fatwas like Maulanas do, but they have groups who indulge in arson, rioting, lynching, in the name of cow, making bizarre claims like there is a Shiv temple underneath Taj Mahal and so on. Sikh fundamentalists lynched the young man recently and also issued dictats -Buta Singh was declared a ‘tankhaiya’.

When the Government fearing the spread of Covid in Haridwar, thought of suspending the Kumbh Mela it had to reconsider its decision because of the pressure from Hindu Saints.

Therefore, India is slowly but surely becoming like Pakistan. We may still not be the mirror image but are closely following their footsteps.

4. Can Religion keep the people united ?

Once again, Pakistan provides us the answer. Has Pakistan succeeded in keeping its flock together? The answer is No. Has it been able to defeat us ? The answer is No. It could not even defeat us when it had state of the art weapon systems. East Pakistan has already gone off and there are secessionist movements in POK, Baluchistan, Gilgit and other tribal areas, despite the fact that they are all Muslims. There is also the perennial conflict between number of fundamentalist groups who want Shariat laws to be implemented and a large section of population who does not want the same. And thus, we find Tehrik-e-Taliban calling Pakistan army its biggest enemy and organizes terror attacks against its own countrymen.

For instance, Tamils are Hindus but they give equal if not more preference to their Tamil identity and so Tamil Thai Vaazhthu has been declared Tamil Nadu's state song, and the state government has made it mandatory that this song be played during all functions in government institutions and everyone to stand while it's being played. This gives the state song a higher priority than the National anthem. This is exactly what happened in Pakistan when Bangla Nationalism grew despite Jinnah’s insistence on Islamic unity. The people of erstwhile USSR except the Central Asian Republics were Christians but USSR broke up because regional identity was more important rather than the religious identity.

We find this happening in Mumbai where Shiv Sena goons beat up their countrymen from Bihar and UP and earlier they had done the same with people of Tamil Nadu. And recently we saw how some Hindu saints exhorted their followers to pick up weapons against Muslims.

So to believe that Hindu nationalism will keep the flock united, is doubtful.

Gradually, even armed forces may get politicized and the Generals may not mind to display their religious affiliations for political favors. For instance, General Rawat preferred to be in the company of Yogiji at his Gorakhnath math and skip the wreath laying ceremony of Indian Navy, in which being the CDS, he should have been in attendance. General Panag very aptly described this in his article, “CDS Bipin Rawat told Gorakhpur students to rediscover culture but forgot military tradition”.

Pakistan Army Generals, since General Ayub Khan’s rule in 1958, have been using religion as a tool to establish its power and decry other Political groups which could undermine its authority. Slowly and gradually its rank and file became Islamicised. After Zia ul Haq became President, the Pakistan army officers often sounded like ‘Maulanas rather than soldiers’ as they urged their men and society to follow Islamic tenets.

Against this backdrop, let us recall what CDS General Rawat said at Gorakhnath Math. He urged the students to rediscover Indian culture diluted by centuries of foreign rule. He also unveiled life-size statues of the previous two mahants of the math — Brahammleen Mahant Digvijay Nath and Brahammleen Mahant Avaidyanath. 

So, Aren’t there similarities between Pakistan’s Army Generals and the Indian army General who had just begun to take the path that was treaded previously by General Ayub Khan?

Lastly, Is Religion capable to rejuvenate a society towards Nation building? Will Religion based Nationalism help the Nation?

Pakistan once again is the best case study. Pakistan was created on the basis of religion where religion was used to unite people and it was felt religion would lend a positive impulse to the nation. Instead, it has resulted in the creation of hundreds of terror organizations and turned Pakistan into a failed state. It has also not produced very many renowned scientists, CEOs of MNCs and technocrats.

Religion also destroyed its educational system and the scientific temper of the society and lacks research facilities/infrastructure. India on the other hand today can boast of hundreds of top class research facilities and infrastructure- TIFR, IISC, Atomic Energy Commission, ISRO, BARC, National Chemical Laboratory, the National Physical Laboratory, the Fuel Research Station, The Glass & Ceramics Research Institute and the National Metallurgical Laboratory and off course the IITs. India has produced many world class scientists and technocrats including noble laureates because we took a different approach in 1947.

Thus, the fundamentalist forces that are unleashed will neither reinvigorate nor provide positive impulse to the society nor it will help uniting the people, on the other hand it will politicize the armed forces, bring stagnancy, destroy rationality and make us only conformists rather than innovative and creative.

Conclusion

The above appears to be true as proven in a research done ; To investigate the cognitive and neural systems involved in religious fundamentalism, by a team of researchers—led by Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University.

The team of researchers said ; Since religious beliefs play a massive role in driving and influencing human behavior throughout the world, it is important to understand the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism from a psychological and neurological perspective.

The Findings; It was found that the prefrontal cortex plays a role in religious fundamentalism, since this region is known to be associated with something called ‘cognitive flexibility’ ; brain’s ability to think about multiple things simultaneously and comprehend concepts.

The tests revealed that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex, can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination may harm the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness because religious fundamentalism emphasizes on rigid adherence to beliefs.

In view of the above, it is not surprising that societies that get an over dose of Religion consistently display a lack of scientific temperament because may be they have a large number of people that have impaired frontal neo cortex and Pakistan is surely the example in front of us.

Now the choice is ours as a society ; WHICH PATH DO WE TAKE HEREON ?

Should we get the prefrontal cortex impaired and damage the cognitive flexibility or make sure that the brains ability to think multiple things and understands concepts remains intact or we sideline the Religion like West did and focus on Science & Technology or take Pakistan’s path and create a huge army of fundamentalists who would keep harping on the ancient glory and ruin the FUTURE.

The violence and arson by the students in Bihar reminds me of what I had written a few months  ago,  ;

Corona is not going to go without leaving a deep impact on the society , The pandemic is likely to have SOCIAL- POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC RAMIFICATIONS as deep as the World War 1 and 2 had. Refer ;

Did We Know Our Room Was Full of Dust - I?

https://www.bharatamrising.com/challenges-features-2/did-we-know-our-room-was-full-of-dust

Pandemic will have Social, Eco and Political Ramifications.

https://www.bharatamrising.com/challenges-features-2/pandemic-will-have-social-eco-and-political-ramifications

The reasons for this pandemic to have a multi dimensional impact on the society and nation are as follows;

One. The situation had turned so grim in 2020 and 2021 that the administration was left clueless. In Wave One, The abrupt shutdown in left millions stranded, who later on lurched back to their homes hungry and in disheveled state. In Wave 2, There was an acute shortage of medicines (Remsdvir) , acute shortage of Beds, acute shortage of Oxygen and obviously shortage of Health care staff in many states. The Patients were running from one hospital to another in search of beds. Those who lost their near and dear ones due to the callousness and indifferent attitude of Administration cannot forget and forgive those who were responsible for the misgovernance. Particularly when the Govt has still not done anything to improve its Hospitals and health care system and the sick have still to be taken to the Private hospitals.

Two. Besides adversely impacting the industry, the business, the economy, causing loss of earnings, loss of employment , it has also adversely impacted the Indian justice system, which was already under great stress and was barely able to maintain some sort of law and order in the society. When Judiciary is impacted , it leads to Anarchy.

Three. As the economy suffered a setback and has shrunk, it is natural that the millions of young will be out of jobs. More over the young ones coming out of the institutions do not have the requisite skills that can help them to get employment, the virtual classroom education cannot make you a Good engineer or a technician. As such the Skill development has always been an issue in India and despite the reports from CII and other agencies, the Govts and the society did very little towards Skill development. A CII report indicated that out of 100 applications received barely 15 are employable and out of 85 unemployable almost two third i.e. 56 are not even trainable.

In the bargain, it is not surprising that for a vacancy of a Peon in a Govt office, one finds thousands of applicants applying that too PhDs, Engineering graduates and MBAs. This is also an indication that in the absence of requisite skills and also little investment by the Private sector in UP and Bihar, the young ones are dependant on the Govt for jobs.

In view of the above, it is not surprising that the frustrated students resorted to violence, because for how long this dose of Religion can keep the young and the countrymen intoxicated. People need jobs and money to manage their homes. The price rise has already broken the back bones of many homes.

We just had a farmers’ stir that went on for many months, we had anti CAA protest that ended in violence, arson and bloodshed but the Govt skillfully managed to wriggle out of all this mess.

If the respective State Govts and the Central Govt do not address this problem of Unemployment there is likely to be a social unrest on various other reasons ; Price Rise, deteriorating Law and Order Problem and may be for some other reason.

No society is ever bereft of disgruntled elements however when those causes of disgruntlement start impacting the Common man, the Govt must sit up and take a Note of it and take immediate corrective measures to address their grievances or else they may soon lead to social unrest and violence.

On one hand the Centre has just begun the process of preparing a draft of Bills needed to repeal the three farm laws, and on the other hand the farm unions , emboldened by Mr Modi’s announcement have written an open letter to Prime Minister listing their remaining demands, especially a legal mandate for MSP, and said they would continue to protest until all issues are resolved.

The letter sought the immediate withdrawal of action against farm protesters who “have been implicated in hundreds of cases during this movement (June 2020 till date) in Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and several other states”.

Thereafter they said, they will hold a ‘Dilli Border Morche Par Chalo’ with tractor rallies across states to mark one year since the first set of farmers arrived from Punjab and Haryana at Singhu. From November 29, the KISAN MORCHA is planning to send a set of 500 protesters each day to Parliament in tractors to protest during the Winter Session.

Their Open letter said ; Prime Minister, you have appealed to the farmers that now we should go back home. We want to assure you that we are not fond of sitting on the streets. We too desire that after resolving these other issues as soon as possible, we return to our homes, families and farming. If you want the same, then the government should immediately resume talks with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on the above six issues,”.

What the farmers are demanding now, need to be examined in totality because despite the farmers’ distress all these years, NO GOVT ever tried to disturb the hornets’ nest and did not make MSP mandatory. Lastly, now that the Govt had decided to disturb the Horntes' nest, We need to closely examine as where all this can lead to, if Govt does not take this developing trend seriously and mend its ways.

Read more ...